


Love, Trust, and Understanding

by Pdxtrent



Series: A Series of Unfortunate Chapters [7]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hales, Constructive Criticism Welcome, F/M, Gen, M/M, Not great Peter Hale, Peter is a Little Shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:41:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29356653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pdxtrent/pseuds/Pdxtrent
Summary: This is the seventh in a series of first chapters I've written over the last couple of years. Sort of a glance into my 'work in gestation' file.Some of these have been mentioned in various chapter notes, like the Stiles and Bucky story, some of them have only been mentioned to my long suffering friends. I make no guarantees these will ever progress past a first chapter, but feel free to ask questions and make comments on them. Answering questions a lot of times will shake loose my thoughts on a particular project, and cause me to go back and tinker with them.I'm calling them my 'Series of (Un)fortunate Chapters.This was originally the story prompt for the gift story that became Love and Monsters.
Relationships: Derek Hale & Stiles Stilinski, Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: A Series of Unfortunate Chapters [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2156343
Comments: 22
Kudos: 18





	Love, Trust, and Understanding

Stiles sighs and puts down his sandwich when he sees the black Camaro flying down the road and glances down to check the radar. He’s vaguely surprised it’s only going 74 in a 50. He flips his lights on and pulls out behind it as it flys past. He’d been trying to eat his lunch in peace on his first day as a patrol officer since coming back to town, and the road through the preserve had turned out to be a terrible choice. Next time he’d just find a school zone.

The Camaro brakes ahead of him and pulled off, and he was glad he didn’t have to try and chase it down. When he pulled in behind it he ran the plate, registered fo a Laura Lahey, and he wondered if she was married to either Isaac or Camden, small towns being what they were it seemed likely. He stepped out of the patrol car and walked up to the window, and when he looked down and started to ask for license and registration he felt the breathe catch in his throat, and his chest tighten as his heart started to pound. 

In the car, Derek’s eyes flared and Stiles caught the slight flash of blue before he tamped it down. 

“Derek.” Stiles said faintly. 

“Stiles.” Derek said, cold as could be. 

“I assume you know how fast you were going?” 

“What are you doing back in town?” Derek answered. 

“Because the roads well posted with signs and the speed along here is 50.”

“Laura said you’d moved to Seattle.” 

“So I’m going to need to see your license and registration as well as proof of insurance.” Stiles finished. 

Derek stared at him and he stared back, trying for an impassiveness he didn’t feel. 

“License. And registration. Proof of insurance.” Stiles repeated. And finally Derek I froze enough to hand them up where he’d had them in his hand. 

Stiles glanced down at them then said, “Wait right here, I’ll be right back.” He walked back to his patrol car woodenly, calling the information into dispatch and was unsurprised when it came back clean. He wrote the citation out woodenly, remembering the codes for speeding and then a burst of anger finally struck him and he added the code for reckless driving as well. Fuck Derek Hale, the man ruined his life when he was 21. He added the appearance date and signed the bottom and got back out. He walked up to the Camaro and handed Derek his identification and the ticket. 

“Please slow down in the future Mr Hale.” He said and turned to go.

“I’m surprised your father was able to give an ex-con a job.” Derek growled out behind him and he spun back around. 

“What are you talking about?” Stiles said, utterly confused. 

“I saw your arrest warrant.” Derek said. “Theft and identity theft.” 

“I’ve never been arrested.” Stiles replied, mystified why Derek would even say something so ridiculous. “I’ve had two tickets in my life, the first a speeding ticket my dad wrote, and the other the day some asshole jilted me. I was an FBI agent for three years. They don’t let even suspected ex-cons do that.” 

Derek gave him his murder face, a look Stiles had missed for far longer than was good for him, but said nothing.

“So I’d appreciate if I don’t hear any more lies coming out of your mouth and if I start hearing bullshit stories like that floating around town, I will track them back to you and gladly sue you for defamation of character you arrogant piece of shit.” Hs turned back and slammed his way into the patrol car. 

He watched until Derek turned the engine on and drove away. His heart pounding in his chest and his brain alive with rage. “Fuck you Derek Hale.” He said softly as the car pulled out. He was just getting ready to pull out himself when his cell rang. He glanced at it, and saw his dads face, and he sighed and picked it up.

“Daddio.” He said. 

“I just stopped by dispatch.” His dad said without preamble, “and Rosie mentioned you’d just radioed in Derek Hales information.” 

“Indeed I did.” Stiles said. 

“Do you want to tell me about it?” 

“What’s to tell? I pulled over a Camaro going 74 in a 50, and the asshole was driving. A fucking Camaro, so fucking pretentious. I dodged a bullet there.” He said into the phone. 

“Am I going to have a complaint against my newest deputy for assault?” His dad said with a sigh. “I didn’t know he was in town.” He added apologetically. 

“Well it was a surprise but somehow I managed to restrain myself. It was a little harder when he accused me of being a thief.” 

“What?” His dad said into the phone.

“No clue. He accused you of abusing your office to give me a job since I was an ex-con. Like out of left field.” 

“What the hell is he talking about?” 

“No clue, but I told him if he started spreading rumors I’d sue him for defamation. The rumors are going to be bad enough when people find out about Heather, I don’t need anymore bullshit.” 

“You can’t blame yourself for Heather Stiles.” His dad said. 

Stiles sighed. “I don’t blame myself exactly.” He said. “I just wish it had worked out differently.” 

“Me too son.” His dad said. 

“Anyway, I’m going to head back closer to town. I was just trying to eat my lunch in something like peace.” 

“Alright son. I’ll see you at home tonight. I love you.” 

“I love you too pops.” Stiles said with a sigh, hanging up. 

As he drove he relived the memories from almost a decade before. 

Derek had been a year older in school, and they’d had this antagonistic relationship the whole time, but with this constant tension. It wasn’t until Derek came home the summer after his sophomore year in college, recently broken up with some sorority girl, that he had run into the man again, and that tension had finally boiled over into a summer of incredible sex and falling so deeply in love with Derek it had been pathetic. 

They’d done the long distance thing, Derek at NYU and Stiles at Berkeley for a year, and at finally during Christmas break before Derek’s senior year, he’d proposed and Stiles had said an instant yes, utterly certain Derek was who he wanted to spend his life with. They’d decided on a summer wedding, and Derek would come to San Francisco for Stilled senior year, while Derek interned at his uncles law firm. 

Everything had been going so smooth, until the actual wedding day. All the guests had arrived and the gardens at the Hale house were full, and Stiles had been upstairs getting ready when Derek’s mother Talia walked in, regal and gorgeous, and announced in front of Stiles and his best friend Scott and the sheriff that there would be no wedding, and furthermore, they all needed to leave her house immediately.

The scene had been horrific. Stiles had been shouting questions into Talia’s remote and unresponsive face, and his dad had been trying to hold him back. Thank god for Scott who was left to go and announce to the wedding guests that there’d be no wedding while Stiles drove away.

The rage burned in Derek’s stomach as he drove the long road through the preserve to the Hale House. Of all the fucking people he didn’t want to see, fucking Stiles was number one on the list!

He took the turn off to the house a little too fast and shook his head to try and clear it as he slowed down. Laura would kill him if he damaged her baby. He slid into an open spot near the garage and slipped out of the car after grabbing the ticket and shoving it deep in his pocket. 

When he slammed the front door, Laura poked her head out of the kitchen, “Whats got your tail on fire?” She asked. 

“You will not believe the clusterfuck of an afternoon I just had.” He said as he stormed into the kitchen, I was coming back out the Preserve road and got pulled over and you will never guess who it fucking was!” 

“The sheriff?” Laura hazarded. 

“No, his fucking son!” Derek spit out. “Like how does that piece of shit make that work? He had the balls to deny it too, said he had no idea what I was talking about!” 

“Derek! You know Peter told you about that in confidence! If it gets out he’s talking about confidential client information he could lose his career!” 

Derek stilled. It was true, Peter had found a copy of the arrest warrant for Stiles on one of his partners desks just a couple days before the wedding and had rushed to show it to Derek. He wasn’t pack anymore, since he’d refused to bend the throat to Derek’s mother when she’d inherited, but he was still family and loved Derek and Laura dearly. Derek had been torn about what to do, but Peter had insisted he couldn’t marry someone who’d keep that kind of secret, so Derek had left town the night before the wedding and Peter and Laura has stayed to deal with the mess.

“How did he even get a job as a cop with a criminal record?” Laura asked.

“Probably his dad, you know how the sheriff is about him.” Derek replied. 

They did. The whole county did. But he’d never imagined the sheriff was corrupt enough to make his ex con son a deputy, but he was popular enough that it wouldn’t matter even if it came out. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know he was in town or I’d have warned you.” 

“I know.” He said. 

“So I’m guessing you’re not up for a rewatch of Julia Roberts best movie tonight?” Laura said. 

“Don’t make me leave for New York tomorrow.” He said with a growl as he settled in next to her and lay his head on her shoulder.

She laughed, “Honestly Der, you have the worst luck with dating.” She said.

“You liked Stiles!” He protested, “Everyone did!” 

“I’m just saying, you break up with Kate for Stiles, then break up with Stiles and get back with Kate, and then refuse to marry her either, you just look indecisive.” 

He sighed heavily. “I just want what mom and dad had.” He said softly. “I thought it was Stiles.” 

“And Kate?” 

“It-“ he hesitated, “it seemed like it was time. We were talking about kids, and it just seemed like the first step.” 

“But then you broke it off.”

“Why are you grilling me about this?” Hs asked.

“Because you’ve been hiding out in New York since you broke it off, I haven’t been able to grill you about it.” 

“You’re the worst.” He shrugged. “It just-“ he paused. “With Stiles it felt right. Like right up until Peter brought those papers home I was sure he was it. And I kept waiting to be that certain with her.” 

Laura nodded. “I know what you mean.” She said softly. “I couldn’t wait for Patrick to ask me, I knew he was the right one for months.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure why this one never really caught on with me, perhaps just the timing. But I thought I'd throw the story up here, because I do think about it a lot, and think I might take another attempt at it someday, or not. 
> 
> But I do love that first scene of these two.


End file.
